Tick of Yum

Vegetable stock - the thermomix vegetable stock is really the epitome of why everyone should get a Thermomix!

What is it?  If you need to ask this...

 get straight to your EveryDay Cookbook and do the recipe!!  Really! 

Basically - it is a concentrated paste of vegetables, herbs and salt.  It is delicious and is used as a stock equivelant (MUCH better in my view).  Where your normal recipe would say stock... use this.  Where it asks for a stock cube... use this.

Why?  Well.... that's the question really isn't it.  

1. For a start it tastes fantastic.  
2. Secondly, there are no preservatives or additives OR gluten in it!  
3. Thirdly it uses fresh herbs and vegetables - no fillers
4. It is CHEAP.  I costed it out.  With the vegetables costing a total of $5 (and should cost you much less!!) then it works out at 15c per litre of made up stock
5. It is easy to make.  Chop, cook, puree!
6. It lasts for 6 months in the fridge, using with the salt requested in the recipe (PLEASE read further down on the salt information!!!)
7. Despite the salt content, it has less salt in it than it's equivalent in stock cubes or most processed liquid stocks.
8. it actually tastes better than chicken or beef stock in recipes and gravies (and that is ME saying that! The ultiate meat loving carnivore)

There are two parts to this post.  first there is the recipe itself - how to go about it, and secondly there is the question on the salt.

Lets look at the recipe first.  The recipe has a great mix of vegetables, herbs and salt which you chop, cook and then puree into a paste.  (yes, it is that easy!)  

There are three questions I commonly get and I'd like to answer them here.  

1. Do I have to use these vegetables?  The short answer is no.  The vegetables in the recipe are a great mix, but use what you have in your fridge.  I think that the onion and the garlic clove are a must though.  If you are using other vegetables, use a total of 800-850g of vegetables including the onion and garlic.
2. The second question is on the herbs.  One VERY IMPORTANT issue to raise first is - where the recipe requests a "bunch of parsley" - they do NOT mean the sized bunch that you buy in the shops!  If you use that much you will have a very parsely flavoured stock.  AND - you need to remember that flat leafed parsely is MUCH stronger than curly parsley.  How much to use?  a SMALL number of stalks.  Look at the rest of the recipe requests - a few leaves of this or that... don't overwhelm your stock.  As for the other herbs - use what you have.  If you don't have anything fresh, use dried.  I tend to use a fresh bay leave, a sprig of fresh rosemary, a few leave of basil and a teaspoon of dried oregano.
3. The last - but often the first thing in people's minds is - do you need to use that much salt?  I can state categorically now that there is NOT that much salt!  I know it is hard to believe, but I will show it later in this post.  But as for the question, no.  However, if you do not use the salt you will need to freeze the stock :-)  Icecube trays are best for this.  With the salt you can keep it in the fridge for 6 months!

HINT: As stated, without the salt in the stock you need to freeze your stock.  Lay a plastic bag over your icecube tray and then fill up the cubes.  That way, when the stock is frozen, you just need to lift the bag and you already have them in the bag for freezing. 

Now, lets talk salt.  Some people get all strung out on the salt in the stock.  No doubt about it... it is salty!  UNTIL DILUTED.  That is something that some people just don't get!  This is a concentrate!

According to this pamphlet put out by the QLD government, you are advised to look for items that have a salt per serve amount of less than 150mg.  In a day, you are advised to stick to less than 2500mg and reduce it to 1400mg if you can.

Now lets look at your stock.  There is a recipe to nutritional panel converter set up by Food Standards Australia and New Zealand.  When I put in the recipe, the converter shows that there is 6000mg of salt in the recipe.  That's a lot.  BUT - there are 35 tablespoons of stock in that recipe - divide 6000 by 35 and you get 171mg.  

It doesn't stop there though - each tablespoon makes a LITRE of stuff (soup, rissotto etc) and unless you are going to eat/drink an entire litre of the food, you need to divide that too.  Even if you were very hungry and you have 500g of soup, casserole or rissotto - you are looking at a super sized serve with only 80mg of salt. A regular serve of 300g would give you about 55mg.

Lets put that into perspecitive... would you put a tablespoon of parmesan cheese into your rissotto?  That amount of parmesan cheese has 2 to 4 times the salt.  Another point is - even an egg has 70g of salt 

Lets say you are living on Thermomix Potato and leek soup, you would have to have nearly 9 litres of soup to get to the minimum of salt recommended by that pamphlet by the QLD Gov.

My sister in law works for the food standards section of the department of health in SA and has given me a good insight into the question of salt.

Firstly - she tells me that the salt that you add to your meals yourself (by shaking some on, or using it in your stock) is only 5% of your daily intake of salt!  Inherent in that is the implied unassailable fact that 95% of your salt comes from processed/packaged food as there is very little natural salt in fresh food.  Thermomix owners generally do not use much (if any) processed foods so treat yourself to a little salt in your meals - the operative word here folks is little :).  

The other thing that I found incredibly interesting, is that the national health authority is thinking of INCREASING the amount of salt allowed into our diet so "Australians can get somewhere near" the recommended amount!  That is shocking!  

Get a Thermomix I say!!!